A Journey Towards Minimalism

In this digital world, who will still gives you physical photos? Well, please don't be surprise. On and off, I still receive them. "Where do they come from?" you might be wondering...... Well, they come from those weddings that I attended, company D&D (dinner and dance) where they hired people to setup a photo booth, events organised by retailers etc Therefore today, I sorted out some of them and threw most of them into the trash bins . Those are the photos of the so-called colleagues or friends who never catch up for a pretty long time. Seriously, not to be rude, but I don't think they deserve a "space" in my home. As I got rid quite a number of paper clutters on my pin board today, I pinned all of my loved ones ' photos onto it. Because they are the ones who I truly care and love the most. As I got rid of many stuffs that doesn't matter in my life, whatever left are those truly matters! Less = More! How about you? Do y...

Look around your house or table at your workplace, what do you see? Do you see guitar lying around the corner of your room, skateboard left untouched for years, bicycle that you once loved so much, rollerblades which you used to go for lessons with it etc..... What happened to all those stuffs now? Did you recently just bought a fidget spinner and forget about em all? I wouldn't be surprise if your answer is YES! Cos that's what happened to most of us! We lose our focus! Instead of focusing on one thing we could possibly become an expert of it, we are constantly looking for the next shinning object! Imagine you could be the best guitarist in the world, the next best biker. Wouldn't that be great? Now, ask yourself. "If today you can only have one skill that you will be an expert in, what would that be?" If you already found the answer, shouldn't you be focusing on that subject matter? Shouldn't you discard all those "noises...

"Honey, the wall looks empty. Shall we hang some paintings on it?" "Hey, we just bought some tupperware, shall we go buy some tidbits and fill them up?" "Your dinning table looks so empty, you should at least buy a vase of flower for decoration!" "Wow! You have so many pairs of shoes, go get a shoe rack and tidy them up." "You have a closet full of clothes, please buy more hangers to hang them up" Does all these conversations sound familiar to you? I believe probably you heard at least one or a few of them, either from your spouse, parents or even your friends! Most of the time, we are so tempted to fill up the voids which are unnecessary. We are conditioned since young that we need to have more to be happier, which in contrast, the reverse is true. Ask yourself: how often you take the time to really appreciate those paintings, photos that are hang on your wall? how often do you not throw away food that you can...

You have to let it go! Letting it go is never easy. It is easier said than being done . I can totally connect with you. The same kind of feeling when I first let go of my kids and placed them in infant care and child care center. Few things that came to my mind: "Will they be well-taken care of? Will they fall sick easily? Will those care givers ❤️ them as much as I do?" I was so worried!  "But sooner or later I got to let them go, its just a matter of time!" This was what my subconscious was telling me! Well, same goes for stuffs that we keep holding on to them! We always tell ourselves " Just in case we need them in the future." However, years have passed and those stuffs were still sitting in the corner collecting dust! So what can be done? Well, the truth is - if you cling on to those things which doesn't really matter to you, you won't be able to focus on those few that truly matter . Therefore...

It is another Sunday with the kids. As I need to meet a buyer in the late afternoon (to sell away one of my clutter), I decided to let my kids sort out their toys. I told them to sort out their toys into 2 main categories: Toys that they still want to play with Toys that they already outgrown and no longer has any joy in owning them I told my daughter she can choose to sell it away or donate it to charity. She can then use the proceeds from the toys she sold to buy useful stuffs or to use the money for experiences that she would like to enjoy. So today we have achieved 3 objectives: Own lesser toys Make some money for future use Blessing for the less privileged ones

What's Minimalism? If you are like me who embarked on this journey towards minimalism for quite sometimes, you would find that not many people understand what's minimalism is all about. As you become more minimalist, more people will start to find you weird and hard to understand. These people likely will be those who are very close to you; your immediate family members or your very close friends . Why is that so? Because people tends to think that you: have no money (because you have no desire to buy things) stingy (because you don't want to waste money to buy stuffs which serve no purpose) don't lead a happy life (because most thought that the more things you have, you will be happier) etc...... What Minimalists Want From Me? However, what minimalists really want from you is to: live your life purpose and fulfil your dreams (don't waste time to accumulate stuffs that doesn't even matter) find true happiness in less (excess in any...

As I don't feel like going anywhere this few weeks because I had fractured my hand , I decided to spend my time reading some books. Books that are related to minimalism . One of the books that I had just finished reading and would like to share with all the minimalists the value I got from this book titled " clutter free " are: 1. Most of the time we buy things to become what we want to be. However, the things that define yourself are your characters, value etc something which is intangible rather than physical items. 2. Only buy the same category of item to replace another. For example, you buy a T-shirt to replace your torn one (keep in mind to discard the torn one and not to keep it for " just in case ") 3. Though u might have spent so much money on it, it is far better to sell it away or donate it to charity when you no longer need it. Certainly, there are so much to share what this book talks about. Above are just some of main i...

"Thanks for you blessings!" The buyer said to me. "You are most welcome! All the best to you." I replied. YESSSS! I just successfully sold another stuff - A holy bible (Chinese/English new international version). Haha! Another small step towards minimalism . The bible was given to me as a gift from a very good friend of mine who wanted to introduce me to his religion, Christianity (by the way, I'm a free-thinker). For the past few days, as I was screening through my study room and noticed that this bible was sitting at the corner of my cabinet for far too long. I thought to myself, "Perhaps its time to let this item bless another person." To my surprise, after posted online for less than 3 days, I received an email from the buyer who need this bible. I was very happy because not only I sold my brand new cordless phone (don't know why I purchased it but never use) and my old iPad cable recently, I also managed to sell this bible wh...

I still remember the first time I embarked on this journey, I first created video about minimalism on YouTube before journey to the less  (the blog you are reading now) was born. Though there are many videos about minimalism (especially in the U.S), however, when I YouTube search " Become Minimalist in Singapore ", not many YouTube video was found. "Am I the only Singaporean discovered about minimalism and decided to take on this journey?" I thought to myself. Matthew 7:7  - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: After my 3rd video posts in my YouTube Channel , Ben contacted me. We decided to meet up and share ideas. You can watch his sharing   here . Not only that, after sometimes, we are able to connect with more like-minded people not only in Singapore, but also worldwide. Check us out via our WhatsApp group chat by clicking on below banner:

Today, after I came back home from Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. I took a clear look at my home. "Minimalism still a long way for me! Definitely, its not going to be an easy journey!" I sighed. As I was awarded a 30 days MC by the doctor, I view it as a great opportunity for me to declutter as much stuffs as possible in a month. Well, what can you do beside looking at life on the bright side? So, I spent most of my afternoon time selling whatever things I could online. Things that no longer brings joy to my life and items that have been idling at a corner for too long . I opened up all the drawers in my study room and found so many things which I never touched them for so long! Especially this "dino" Sony Ericsson phone. I remembered I sold the phone away already! Why is the cables and box still lying around in one of my drawer? Therefore, without much hesitation, I threw in whatever cables which I'm 100% sure that I won't be using them anymor...

Over all these while, after I  started my journey towards having less stuffs, whenever I got the chance to having less stuffs necessarily, I would enjoy more joy than having more. Few weeks ago, I called OCBC Bank to waive off my annual fee for my credit card (a card which I use frequently for grocery at NTUC ). However, after 1 week of auto application through phone, they rejected me. After another week of appeal which was advised by the customer service executive, they rejected me again. As I was very curious because usually bank would try their means to retain every customers they acquired. Therefore, I asked them "why do you reject my appeal?" "Because you spent less than $2500 per year!" the customer service officer told me. " I'm a minimalist !" I told her. Definitely she don't understand what I'm talking about. However, at the back of my mind I was thinking "here come the chance to own less, hehe :)" Therefore, ...

I would be lying to you if I tell you that I'm a perfect minimalist. Everyone define minimalism in their own ways. However, if one never put into action about what he preached, then that will be hypocrite . The journey to the less is not an easy one just like the journey to the west. Along the way, there will always be "devils" attacking your ideas, belief etc. Therefore after my yesterday blog post , I decided that I should put into action immediately ! Yesterday evening time after my wife came back from work, we decided to go NTUC fairprice to buy some fruits and meats, I suggested to her that instead of using the plastic bag from NTUC fairprice, we should carry our own recycle bag. She agrees to that (who will not ❤️ to do more for the environment?) and end of the day, we saved a plastic bag being used. This is the recycle bag that we used to shop for our grocery yesterday. Not only the quote reminds me to consume lesser sweet stuffs, it also remind...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle "What did you learn today?", I asked my kids . " Reduce, Reuse, Recycle !", exclaimed my daughter who is always excited to answer every question posted to her. "What's that all about?" I asked her. " We shouldn't let anything go to waste ! Just like the commercial save my world !" She told me. Our conversation though was a few weeks ago however, it left a very deep impression at the back of my mind. 5 Rs Approach Towards Zero Waste So, what my kids learned in school is only 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle . In actual fact, I learned that for a more holistic approach towards zero waste, we should adopt the 5 Rs - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot (Arranged according to order) So what does each means? Refuse (Refuse things which might be FREE but you don't need it) Reduce (Reduce any wastage) Reuse (Reuse any stuffs such as plastic containers, tin cans etc) Recycle (Recyc...

Have you ever wondered why do people hoard? Perhaps it all started from our fore parents? Most of them migrated to a new country with nothing and they tend not to take things for granted. To them every stuffs are valuable. However, over time as we become more and more well to do, our habits still follow. We still have the tendency to want more stuffs (especially if it's FREE) But, have you ever thought about your precious limited resources; TIME? It takes time to clean them, to tidy them or organising them etc. Basically, hoarding can be broken down into 3 symptoms : Excessive collection of valueless stuffs Inability to get rid of things Inability to organise stuffs Are you able to identify your symptoms? Also, hoarders can be identified in these 2 main categories: Impulsive hoarders (they have the tendency to buy things they don't really need) Worried Keeper (they keep things for future use but never comes in handy) Are you one of them? D...